Jewish Bialystok was almost completely erased in the Holocaust. Poland’s fourth largest city before the war, it was a teeming metropolis with a Jewish majority, a fact that gave its local culture a very Jewish flavor. Yiddish theaters, Yiddish newspapers, Yiddish schools – much of the city’s life was lived in Yiddish.
Schools were Shaul Goldman’s domain. Born and raised in Bialystok, Goldman helped found the Yugnt Fareyn, a charitable organization that built the first secular Yiddish-language school in Bialystok. He was also instrumental in founding the Sholem-Aleichem Public Library, one of the largest in Poland. His good works as an educator and as a Bund representative for the people of Bialystok were many.
This website was created to explore the legacy of Shaul Goldman, the Bund, and the Yiddish secular schools in Bialystok.